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Monday, November 17, 2014

Our guest post is with popular author Victoria Hamilton. She is the author of three nationally bestselling series, the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries and Merry Muffin Mysteries as Victoria, and the Teapot Collector Mysteries as Amanda Cooper. She is also the bestselling author of Regency and historical romance as Donna Lea Simpson. Busy lady!

I have reviewed #1 Bran New Death (click here), and #2 Muffin But Murder (click here) of the Merry Muffin series, and I will be reviewing the newest in the Vintage Kitchen series, No Mallets Intended later this week.

Victoria loves to cook and collects vintage kitchen paraphernalia, teacups and teapots, and almost anything that catches her fancy! She loves to read, especially mystery novels, and enjoys good tea and cheap wine, the company of friends, and has a newfound appreciation for opera. She enjoys crocheting and beading, but a good book can tempt her away from almost anything… except writing!Working It: The Right Tool for the JobCooks need a lot of tools, and so do writers. What profession doesn’t?

But… where mystery writer tools become, after a time, electronic junk, (Like the Intel 286 computer I started writing on!) a cook’s tools get more beautiful and useful with age. Just like people, right?

This is even true of the older tools that we now label vintage. I can’t get enough of the lovely spoons, egg beaters, knives, lifters, whisks and assorted other items we used once upon a time and – gasp – still use! Where a writer’s first tools – pens and pencils – have been replaced by electronics, cooks still need those same spoons, knives, lifters and whisks.

But I have a sordid confessions: I am addicted to modern kitchen gadgets, something shiny and new that promises to change my life. I have bought just in the past couple of years a combination peeler/scrubber/potato de-eyer, (still never used) three different kinds of garlic choppers/squishers (I still chop it by hand) cubers (I also still do this by hand) and various other choppers, cutters, squishers, mashers and peelers, most of which end up in the Goodwill donation box.

But every once in a while you end up with a winner, like the adjustable mandolin that will slice anything from see-through thin to nice and chunky. I love that handy-dandy little gadget! So I suppose, since you don’t know how effective something is until you buy it, I will still fall victim to every hawker on TV who tells me about the next best dicer/shredder/do-everything doohickey, hoping it will be like that mandolin.

I still have a sizable collection of old kitchen tools, however, many that I use all the time, and I love how they look on display in the kitchen. My favorites are the ones with the red and white handles. In No Mallets Intended my protagonist, Jaymie Leighton, is redecorating the kitchen of the historic house her local heritage society has bought. Since so many of the tools have that color scheme, and since Christmas is approaching, she is urged by more than one person to make the color scheme of the kitchen red and white. Nothing wrong with that, but as you can see by the book cover, that is not what Jaymie decides on; she goes for a kind of butter yellow and soft green, another common color combination for not just kitchen tools, but appliances as well.

The beauty of writing my Vintage Kitchen Mystery series is that, though I have a small kitchen in real life, I get to collect, through Jaymie, all manner of kitchen gadgets of yesteryear. But…

I’ll write those vintage mysteries on a state of the art computer with a cordless mouse and keyboard, and high speed internet access. Just call me a high tech/low tech modern vintage woman!~::~

About No Mallets Intended

Jaymie Leighton is excited and a little nervous about her current big venture, completely redoing the kitchen at Dumpe House—now the Queensville Historic Manor—in time for the December opening. But the house is mired in controversy, a challenge to the heritage society’s right to own it, and questions about the author hired to write a pamphlet detailing the Dumpe family history and that of the house.

None of Jaymie’s business, so she keeps her head down and her focus on the exact color right for the kitchen, and assembling all the accouterments, including a Hoosier cabinet! She’s also got lots to think about in her personal life with Daniel acting a little odd, and her friend Heidi dragging her in to the trouble between her and her fiancé, Jaymie’s former boyfriend Joel.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~THANK You Victoria! That was a fun post, we appreciate your joining us. Please show some love in the comments.

Since we are fast approaching Thanksgiving here in the

U.S., here are some DIY crafts to give you some ideas for making this holiday extra special. (click here) I know it seems as though this holiday doesn't get as much attention and it is just crammed in between Halloween and the December Holidays (for my multicultural believers). These can be as easy as you desire, and can aid in making this holiday memorable.

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A warm welcome to each and every guest, grab a cup of your favorite hot beverage and join me. This is a new blog for mystery lovers and fellow aspiring authors.

Monday's: musings on the mystery genre and writing craft and occasionally a progress report on the novel I am writing, some author interviews, book giveaways or blog tours depending on what I scare up.

Thursday's: Book review. "The writer reads in order to write." I do have a habit of finding already established series and starting with book one. So maybe you will be introduced to a new series in my reviews of the occasional older book. I recently added a recipe or video on Thursday's as well for added enjoyment.

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I’m a Colorado gal who loves the mountains and low bug population but hates the snow and cold. I have been a book worm from second grade and my first venture into writing stories was fourth grade.
I love pretty much all mysteries and those with a paranormal angle in particular. I look forward to sharing my adventures in reading with you.